Monthly Archives: July 2014

July 3, 2014 · 8:12 am

A Thought On Independence

The holiday is tomorrow so I’m posting about it today – even the screed gets a day off.   Way back in 2008 (have I really been doing this for THAT long?) I wrote about the July 4th holiday and as I reread that post I think it’s worth posting again.  That’s what’s below.  Have a safe and happy holiday.

It’s going on July 4th and to all of us raised on the Red, White, and Blue we know it’s a day (OK, a long weekend) during which we can celebrate the fundamental principles that make the US of A what it is.  No, I’m not going to venture into politics (although it IS an election year and there’s a LOT to talk about).  What I do want to write about is the contradiction of the “independence day” term.

The Constitution (I know – a bit after the Declaration) begins with the word “we.”  We The People.  Not “me.”  The independence rightly celebrated this weekend is, to me , about the specific rights and freedoms we have to be ourselves as a people, with all the quirks that make us unique.  WE are independent from other folks (Great Britain, specifically, long ago) but NOT from one another.  I’ve spent the last 30+ years learning how critical having a strong bunch of folks around you is as well as setting the bar high in terms of with whom you do business as best you can.  Why?  Because the better they are, the better you become.  As I’ve transitioned from corporate life to consulting, the friends and business friends I’ve made over the last 30 years have been an unbelievable support network, even for a guy who is now independent.

Jack Ingram puts it well in his song “We’re All In This Together“:

We all think we’re special
And I hate to have to say
There’s a bunch of us on every corner
Of any town U.S.A.
We all got our problems
We all pay our dues
So if you’re thinking no one understands
I’ve got news for you

Chorus

We’re all in this together
Whether we like it or not
So we might as well have a good time
With the little piece of time we got
Life’s too short to fuss and fight
So we might as well be friends
‘Cause we’re all in this together
Together till the bitter end

So Happy July 4th.  Enjoy being independent.  Together.

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July 2, 2014 · 8:34 am

Missing The Measuring

I guess there is generally good news with respect to marketers and how they’re measuring social media.

English: A business ideally is continually see...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The”generally” qualification, however, means that there’s still some work to be done. As you’ll see from the data below, while many organizations are getting better about measuring the effectiveness of what they’re doing, what they’re using as key performance indicators could use a lot of fine tuning.

According to the results of a survey put out by the folks at Ipsos OTX for the Association of National Advertisers, 80% of US client-side marketers measured the effectiveness of their social content, with social media metrics such as “likes” the most common.  That’s the good news.  The bad? Metrics that could identify business ramifications were not used nearly as much, with financially based measurements such as return on investment and sales landing near the bottom.

What did the study find that these companies are measuring?  “Likes” leads the list.  Putting aside that it’s an easy number to fake (you can buy thousands of likes for not much money) if you had a reason to do so (your bonus is tied to the number perhaps?), it’s a quantitative factoid that has very little to do with results.  It’s very likely that a brand would make more revenue from a couple of thousand highly interactive fans who post one comment each, than from one million fans who rarely interact with the brand.  Something as basic as follower counts or likes might have importance but it’s a relational importance – how many do we have vs. our competition – rather than being important in and of itself.

Some of what the study found is encouraging.  “Advocacy” is being measured by 27% of brands and “conversation volume” by 52%.  Those are engagement numbers.  It’s good to measure how many people see a post.  It’s better to measure how many are talking about it.  It’s way better to understand what they’re saying and the best is when you can measure all of that along with seeing and reporting what actions they took.  Hopefully that action rang a cash register or brought you a new customer.

Does that make sense?

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July 1, 2014 · 9:14 am

Woodshedding

This TunesDay I want to focus on something that every musician does – woodshed. That isn’t a non-sequitor.

woodshed

(Photo credit: The Year of Mud)

With respect to music “woodshedding” means practicing your instrument but it’s so much more than that. The term comes from that people would go to their woodshed to practice without being overheard.  Well, more like not imposing their unrefined craft on people until it had been honed.  As a young guitar player, I’d sit in my room for hours listening to music and trying to play along.  I think I did that all the way through college even though I was playing in a band (for pay!) by then.  It wasn’t just about learning to play – I knew how to do that after a while.  It was about getting better, internalizing the actions my fingers would take on the fretboard so they’d happen without thought.  The goal was to let my brain hear what I wanted to play and for my fingers to play it, almost like walking or breathing.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the 10,000 hour rule.  While “Outliers” may have popularized it, the concept can be traced back to a 1993 paper written by Anders Ericsson, a Professor at the University of Colorado, called The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance.  The notion is that “many characteristics once believed to reflect innate talent are actually the result of intense practice extended for a minimum of 10 years”.  But Gladwell (“Outliers”) oversimplified the concept and ignored the fact that talent has something to do with the progress one makes.  You can practice all you want and you might get better, but the true elite at an activity generally have some natural gifts that are brought out and improved by all the practice.

Why this thought today?  Sometimes when I encounter a young businessperson they ask about how to grow:  improve their skill set, learn more, make better decisions. We talk about woodshedding and the fact that a musician plays something wrong the first dozen times but eventually learns it.  Making mistakes – playing it wrong – is an important part of the process.  So are the hours you put in practicing.  In business terms that can mean reading books, going to seminars, or taking online courses to refine and grow.  You want to pick the right instrument too.  You must have some basic talent – if you are terrible at math and not detail-oriented, accounting might not be your best choice.

If you aren’t always practicing, you’re falling behind those competitors who are.  Your call.

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